Archive for the ‘automotive terminology’ tag

The Good News Garage MG, under restoration in the Hemmings shop. Photo by Mark J. McCourt.

The British automotive industry isn’t what it used to be, but thanks to the enduring charm of its products, British sports cars continue to enjoy a well-deserved following on this side of the Atlantic. After a few Saturdays spent turning spanners (sorry, wrenches) on the Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car / Good News Garage MGB, and at the request of reader Scotty G., we’ve compiled this helpful translation guide to British car terminology. While many readers will be familiar with these terms, those raised on a steady diet of American, Japanese, German, or Italian cars may scratch their heads when terms like “nave plate” and “quarterlight” are thrown about. Memorize the following terms, and you’re sure to be embraced by your local British car club, regardless of which side of the Atlantic your car comes from.

As for the restoration of the Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car / Good News Garage MGB, the work continues. The interior is now installed, the windshield seal to the body has been replaced and the engine is (mostly) together. We’re awaiting a bit of machining on the intake manifold and a few replacement studs, but the car’s final assembly will likely take place in the next 30 days. Once the project is finished, we’ll provide an additional update, with information on the car’s raffle to support Good News Garage.

A tip of the hat to the Lotus-Europa.com and Team.net websites for their comprehensive British to American cross-reference charts.

Time to clear the air about a certain term that’s been floating around the automotive zeitgeist lately: Malaise Era.

Commonly used to refer to the automobiles of about the mid-Seventies through the mid-Eighties – a time when increasing concern about the environmental impact of the automobile and widespread economic stagflation led to quality-control problems, engines choked with emissions equipment, and questionable product planning decisions – the term is nowadays often used in derision of all automobiles from that era. However, when Murilee Martin first startedusing the term to describe those cars (specifically cars built between 1973 and 1983) over at Jalopnik, he did so light-heartedly and semi-ironically, certainly not as a blanket write-off of those cars.

Its negative connotation only tends to run down some really interesting cars that many of us love. It is no different than calling the cars with Hemis and other performance engines the “Gas Hog Era” cars, or the chrome-laden, overstyled late 50′s cars the “Stupid Styling Era.” All cars through the years have their shortcomings and their highlights. To focus only on a negative aspect of an entire era of cars is not fair, and, I find, quite annoying.

Part of the problem with irony, particularly on the internet and in this age of stripped-out context, is that it’s often hard to tell exactly when somebody’s being ironic and when they’re being sincere. That could thus explain the shifted meaning – as some people take it, at least – of “Malaise Era” from a semi-ironic reference to a serious condemnation, and that poses a potential problem. After all, if the collector car hobby is generational and nostalgia-based, then many younger auto enthusiasts who grew up with cars of this era could be turned away from car collecting if we perpetuate – intentionally or accidentally – a negative stereotype surrounding these cars. And as we’ve discussed so often, the collector car hobby cannot afford to turn away younger auto enthusiasts, no matter what their automotive inclinations.

In addition, any negative perception of the cars in the marketplace will not help much in convincing aftermarket parts suppliers to embrace the cars and begin offering reproduction and restoration parts specific to those cars. Without aftermarket support, cars generally get passed over by old car enthusiasts, leading to their eventual disappearance from the collector car landscape.

So all that said, is it appropriate to continue to use the term “Malaise Era?” If so, how do we make sure it doesn’t become a slur every time we utter it? If not, what term should replace it to describe cars from that low-performance, velour-obsessed time?

The origins of many automotive terms often seem lost in the shrouds of history. For example, nobody yet knows for sure when and where the term “hot rod” came about, and there has always been speculation about the phrase “drag race.” After all, racers are not literally dragging anything when they line up side-by-side on the quarter-mile. Sure, you’re bound to get plenty of apocryphal explanations and suppositions, but it’s rare that these automotive terms get treated to serious linguistic study.

Gary Martin’s The Phrase Finder recently did just that, however, with an examination of the term “drag race.” Their findings note that “drag,” meaning a highway or other thoroughfare, date back to the 1570s, when roads were created by horse-drawn sledges known as drags. Elizabeth I herself didn’t refer to roads as drags, but referred to road-building equipment as drags. That use of the term then kicked around for the next 300-some years, hopping the Atlantic and becoming essentially a synonym of “street” or “road,” which gave rise to the related term “main drag,” familiar to any small-town resident across America. Thus, when hot rodders lined up for a street race, the term “drag race” was born, with “drag” referring not to what was raced (as with “monster truck racing” or “swamp buggy racing”), rather to where the race was conducted (as with “dry lakes racing” or “circle track racing”).

Or, at least, so says The Phrase Finder. What other explanations have you heard for the origins of “drag race” and of other automotive terms?